VOLUME 1
Foreword
Acknowledgments
A Note on Translations
Introduction
Genesis
Bere’shit No. 1. What Can Human Beings Do, and What Can’t They? Or,
Does the Torah Believe in Progress?
Bere’shit No. 2. Created in God’s Image: Ruling for God
Noaḥ No. 1. Before and After the Flood: Or, It All Depends on How
You Look
Noaḥ No. 2. People Have Names: The Torah’s Takedown of
Totalitarianism
Lekh Lekha No. 1. Are Jews Always the Victims?
Lekh Lekha No. 2. Between Abram and Lot: Wealth and Family
Strife
Va-yera’ No. 1. The Face of Guests as the Face of God: Abraham’s
Radical and Traditional Theology
Va-yera’ No. 2. In Praise of Protest: Or, Who’s Teaching Whom?
Ḥayyei Sarah No. 1. Isaac’s Search: On the Akedah and Its
Aftermath
Ḥayyei Sarah No. 2. People are Complicated: Or, Sensitivity Is a
Dangerous Thing
Toledot No. 1. In Praise of Isaac: The Bible’s Paragon of Marital
Empathy
Toledot No. 2. Between God and Torah: Judaism’s Gamble
Va-yetse’ No. 1. Can We Be Grateful and Disappointed at the Same
Time? Or, What Leah Learned
Va-yetse’ No. 2. No Excuses: Jacob’s Sin and Its Consequences
Va-yishlaḥ No. 1. The Fear of Killing: Jacob’s Ethical Legacy
Va-yishlaḥ No. 2. The Power of Compassion: Or, Why Rachel’s Cries
Pierce the Heavens
Va-yeshev No. 1. Against Half-Heartedness
Va-yeshev No. 2. Election and Service: What Joseph Learned
Mikkets No. 1. His Brother’s Brother: Judah’s Journey
Mikkets No. 2. Reuben’s Recklessness: What Disqualifies a
Leader?
Va-yiggash No. 1. Humiliation: Judaism’s Fourth Cardinal Sin?
Va-yiggash No. 2. Saving and Enslaving: The Complexity of
Joseph
Va-yeḥi No. 1. The Majesty of Restraint: Or, Joseph’s Shining
Moment
Va-yeḥi No. 2. Underreacting and Overreacting: Dinah’s Family in
Crisis
Exodus
Shemot No. 1. Why Moses? Or, What Makes a Leader?
Shemot No. 2. Gratitude and Liberation
Va-’era’ No. 1. The Journey and the (Elusive) Destination
Va-’era’ No. 2. Cultivating Freedom: When is Character (Not)
Destiny?
Bo’ No. 1. Pharaoh: Consumed By the Chaos He Sows
Bo’ No. 2. Receiving Gifts (and Learning to Love?): The “Stripping”
of the Egyptians
Be-shallaḥ No. 1. Leaving Slavery Behind: On Taking the First
Step
Be-shallaḥ No. 2. Bread From the Sky: Learning to Trust
Yitro No. 1. Does Everyone Hate the Jews? And, Is There Wisdom
Outside of Torah?
Yitro No. 2. Honoring Parents: (Sometimes) the Hardest Mitzvah of
All
Mishpatim No. 1. Turning Memory Into Empathy: The Torah’s Ethical
Charge
Mishpatim No. 2. Hearing the Cries of the Defenseless: Or, We Are
All Responsible
Terumah No. 1. Being Present While Making Space: Or, Two Meanings
of Tzimtzum
Terumah No. 2. Returning to Eden? An Island of Wholeness in a
Fractured World
Tetsavveh No. 1. God in the Mishkan: Present But Not
Domesticated
Tetsavveh No. 2. Between Ecstasy and Constancy: The Dynamics of
Covenantal Commitment
Ki Tissa’ No. 1. The Importance of Character: Or, Why Stubbornness
Is Worse Than Idolatry
Ki Tissa’ No. 2. God’s Expansive Mercy: Moses’s Praise and Jonah’s
Fury
Va-yak’hel No. 1. Whom Do We Serve? The Exodus toward Dignified
Work
Va-yak’hel No. 2, Pekudei No. 1. (A) Building with Heart
Pekudei No. 2. Building a Home for God
Notes on Genesis
Notes on Exodus
A Note on Bible Commentaries
Bibliography
Subject Index
Classical Sources Index VOLUME 2Foreword
Acknowledgments
A Note on Translations
Introduction
Leviticus
Va-yikra’ No. 1. Order Amid Chaos: Connecting to Leviticus
Va-yikra’ No. 2. The Fall and Rise of Great Leaders: Or, What Kind
of Leaders Do We Need?
Tsav No. 1. No Leftovers: The Meaning of the Thanksgiving
Offering
Tsav No. 2. Buying God Off: Jeremiah and the Problem of Religious
Hypocrisy
Shemini No. 1. Is Vegetarianism a Biblical Ideal?
Shemini No. 2. Of Grief Public and Private: Moses and Aaron Face
the Unimaginable
Tazria’ No. 1. Living on the Boundary: The Complexity and Anxiety
of Childbirth
Tazria’ No. 2, Metsora’ No. 1. Struggling with Stigma: Making Sense
of the Metzora
Metsora’ No. 2. Life-Giving, Death-Dealing Words
‘Aḥarei Mot No. 1. Yom Kippur: Purifying the Tabernacle and
Ourselves
‘Aḥarei Mot No. 2, Kedoshim No. 1. The Holiness of Israel and the
Dignity of the Disabled
Kedoshim No. 2. Loving Our Neighbor: A Call to Emotion and
Action
‘Emor No. 1. Covenantal Joy: What Sukkot Can Teach Us
‘Emor No. 2. Between Grief and Anticipation: Counting the Omer
Be-har No. 1. Another World to Live In: The Meaning of Shabbat
Be-har No. 2, Be-ḥukkotai No. 1. God’s Unfathomable Love
Be-ḥukkotai No. 2. Standing Tall: Serving God with Dignity
Numbers
Be-midbar No. 1. Divine Love and Human Uniqueness
Be-midbar No. 2. A Torah for All? Universalism and Its Dangers
Naso’ No. 1. On Channeling and Receiving Blessing
Naso’ No. 2. The Risk of Relationality: Or, Why Confession
Matters
Be-ha’alotekha No. 1. It’s Not About You: Or, What Moses Knew
Be-ha’alotekha No. 2. After Pain, Prayer: What Moses (and Job) Can
Teach Us
Shelaḥ No. 1. The Tragedy (and Hope) of the Book of Numbers
Shelaḥ No. 2. (Don’t) Follow Your Heart and Your Eyes: Between
Numbers and Ecclesiastes
Koraḥ No. 1. Every Jew a High Priest? The Meaning of Tzitzit and
the Sin of Korah
Koraḥ No. 2. Giving, Taking, and the Temptations of Leadership
Ḥukkat No. 1. When Everything Starts to Look the Same: Moses’s
Failure
Ḥukkat No. 2. Putting Down Ancient Grudges (and Learning Kindness):
Between Israel and Edom
Balak No. 1. The Lampooned Prophet: On Learning From (and With)
Balaam
Balak No. 2. Not There Yet
Pinḥas No. 1. When Zealotry Metastasizes: The Passionate
Self-Regard of Pinhas
Pinḥas No. 2. Between Zealotry and Self-Righteousness: Or, Was
Elijah the Prophet Fired?
Mattot No. 1. Cattle, Cattle Everywhere: The Failure of Reuben and
Gad
Mattot No. 2, Mase’ei No. 1. Serving God in All We Do: Israel’s
Journeys and Resting-Places
Mase’ei No. 2. Do Not Murder! Shedding Innocent Blood and Polluting
the Land
Deuteronomy
Devarim No. 1. “Do Not Be Afraid of Anyone”: On Courage and
Leadership
Devarim No. 2. A Bolt from the Blue: Or, When God Falls in Love
Va-etḥannan No. 1. Coveting, Craving . . . and Being Free
Va-etḥannan No. 2. A God So Close, and Laws So Righteous: Moses’s
Challenge (and Promise)
‘Ekev No. 1. Will and Grace: Or, Who Will Circumcise Our
Hearts?
‘Ekev No. 2. Always Looking Heavenward: Learning Dependence
Re’eh No. 1. Opening Our Hearts and Our Hands: Deuteronomy and the
Poor
Re’eh No. 2. Women in Deuteronomy—and Beyond
Shofetim No. 1. The Future Is Wide Open: Or, What Prophets Can and
Cannot Do
Shofetim No. 2. Give the People (Only Some of) What They Want:
Deuteronomy and the King
Ki Tetse’ No. 1. Let Him Live Wherever He Chooses: Or, Why Runaway
Slaves Are Like God
Ki Tetse’ No. 2. Combating Cruelty: Amalek Within and Without
Ki Tavo’ No. 1. Against Entitlement: Why Blessings Can Be
Dangerous
Ki Tavo’ No. 2. Between Fear and Awe: Forgetting the Self
Nitsavim No. 1. Going in Deep: What It Takes to Really Change
Nitsavim No. 2, Va-yelekh No. 1. Returning to Sinai Every Seventh
Year: Equality, Vulnerability, and the Making of Community
Va-yelekh No. 2. Why Joshua? Or, In (Ambivalent) Praise of
Hesitancy
Ha’azinu No. 1. “I May Not Get There With You”: The Death of Moses
and the Meaning of Covenantal Living
Ha’azinu No. 2. Hearing the Whisper: God and the Limits of
Language
Ve-zo’t ha-berakhah No. 1. The Beginning and End of Torah
Notes on Leviticus
Notes on Numbers
Notes on Deuteronomy
A Note on Bible Commentaries
Bibliography
Subject Index
Classical Sources Index
Rabbi Shai Held is president, dean, and chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar and directs its Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas in New York City. He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence and a recipient of the Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg is one of the preeminent Jewish thinkers of our time.
“The Heart of Torah is a stunning achievement: textually
learned, theologically profound, ethically challenging, spiritually
uplifting, and psychologically astute. If you want to know what it
can mean to read the Torah today with your whole heart and your
whole mind, read this book. And then when you’re done, read it
again.”—Rabbi Sharon Brous, founder and senior rabbi at Ikar, Los
Angeles
“Shai Held deftly brings the wisdom of Torah to bear upon the
contemporary human condition. Christians who read this
book can discover fresh dimensions within the biblical text,
see more clearly where there is common ground between Jews and
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in this world as God’s world.”—Walter Moberly, professor of
theology and biblical interpretation at Durham University
“Shai Held is one of the most important teachers of Torah in his
generation.”—Rabbi David Wolpe, author of David: The Divided
Heart
“Shai Held is an extraordinary figure in the world of Torah.
Combining deep knowledge of classical Judaica, wide and insightful
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theological scholarship, and a keen sense of the human heart, he
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affiliations will find well worth reading and pondering.”—Jon D.
Levenson, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard
Divinity School and author of the National Jewish Book Award–winner
Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of
the God of Life
“Whatever your level of Torah proficiency or your religious
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seemingly familiar texts—his interpretation of ‘an eye for an eye’
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Rabbinical School
“The greatest Jewish books arise from authors who combine deep
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extraordinary work renewed, challenged, and deepened.”—Rabbi Aaron
Panken, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion
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